“Your kingdom come…on earth as it is in heaven.” (Mat 6:10, NKJ)
Just to bring together a few loose thoughts of the past week: God’s desire is to once again unite His kingdom under His rule. As part of this plan, God decided to “develop” (for lack of better word) the earth, which was created with heaven at the beginning (Gen 1:1). At that stage the earth was “void and dark” (verse 2). It was thus void of God, because God is light and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5).
The earth was thus clearly Satan’s domain and he ruled there. In this demon-infested space God had to make the first move to bring His kingdom under His rule again. And His strategy: humankind. God firstly addresses the earth and lets His light manifest there (verse 3). This Light was the presence of God, not the natural light of the sun or the moon – He only created these on the fourth day (verses 14-19)! God clothes the earth in such a manner that the crown of His creation, human beings, can live on earth and establish His Godly lordship there. “You have made him a little lower than the angels; You have crowned him with glory and honour, and set him over the works of Your hands. You have put all things in subjection under his feet” (Heb 2:7-8).
But, like Satan, Adam and Eve were not robots that blindly obeyed God. They also had choice and could exercise that choice. They had the freedom of the most wonderful haven and had the privilege of walking with God in the cool of the day (Gen 3:8), because their spirit dimension made relationship with God possible.
The first humans received a clear instruction from God not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Because Satan, the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), has the right to his domain, he seduced Eve by his craftiness (2 Cor 11:3, ASV) and she caused Adam to sin and fall outside his creation-purpose. And the rest of humankind has assumed this position of fallenness in Adam – we have actually all died spiritually “in Adam” (1 Cor 15:22).
After this, mankind could not be in relationship with God without the external help of offerings and the regulations of the law. And these were all “temporary” and “incomplete” offers and regulations (more about this later). God’s purpose to let the kingdom of God come through mankind – in whom He had placed (literally “blown”) His Spirit, but who lost it through the fall – could not happen.
God’s Son, in all aspects a man, but without sin (Heb 4:15), became the perfect sacrificial Lamb to carry the sin of mankind.
For this reason, His arrival was announced by John the Baptist in the following way: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt 3:2). Jesus’ first public ministry began in this way: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matt 4:17). In verse 23 it states that He went about preaching the “gospel of the kingdom”. In Acts 28:30-31 the following was said of Paul: “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ…”
The gospel of the kingdom of God is the only gospel that exists. Unfortunately, we have reduced it to merely a gospel of salvation. Salvation is but the first step – after receiving Christ you need to walk into the fullness of the lordship of God through which the kingdom comes, on earth as it is in heaven (Matt 6:10).
The kingdom of God is thus established in/on “the kingdoms of the world” (Matt 4:8). This explains the saying that believers are in the world but not of this world (see also John 17:16). Being born again is the only process by which God “brings you over” from one kingdom to another. Col 1:13 states it beautifully: “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love”. The one who is born again thus becomes an ambassador of light within the kingdom of darkness. John 12:46 states it nicely when Christ says: “I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness”.
But, taking all this into account, it is very important to tie this week’s teaching about rebirth and the kingdom of God with the third important theme of the week: dying to self. John 12:24 (yes, the Scripture you memorised yesterday!) is the surest sign that you are born again: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain”.
- Sela: Robin Mark’s song: All for Jesus, spells it out like this:
“Jesus, all for Jesus,
All I am and have and ever hope to be.
All of my ambitions hopes and plans
I surrender these into Your hands.
For it’s only in Your will that I am free.”
Use this song as a guideline to examine your own life before God on this Sabbath. Write down in your journal any wrestles you have with God.
- Read: Gen 13 & 14: Ps 13 & 14; John 13 & 14.
- Memorise: John 13:34-35; John 14:6.
